This application claims the priority of German Application No. 197 56 985.4, filed Dec. 20, 1997, the disclosure(s) of which is (are) expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to an internal combustion engine having a mechanical supercharger for compressing combustion air in the intake manifold.
DE 41 03 870 C2 discloses an internal combustion engine which has a mechanical supercharger to increase power and torque. The supercharger is arranged in the intake tract of the internal combustion engine and compresses the combustion air fed to the combustion chamber. As a result, charging efficiency of the internal combustion engine is increased. Arranged downstream of the supercharger is a charge-air cooler, which reduces the combustion-air temperature increased as a result of the compression. After passing through the charge-air cooler, the combustion air is fed to the intake manifold of the internal combustion engine.
In order to reduce the production and assembly costs, it is normal practice, starting from a basic model, to realize different engine variants by modifying certain engine components. The power and torque of the basic model may be increased, for example, by installing the supercharger described above. The supercharger, including the charge-air cooler, must be attached to the intake manifold of the internal combustion engine in a pressure-tight manner in order to permit the desired supercharging of the combustion air. A problem here is that the geometry of the intake manifolds of different engine variants is of varying configuration. The intake manifold must therefore also be adapted when installing a supercharger into the basic model. As a consequence of the effort required for the assembly of the individual components, the costs for the modification of the basic model may also increase.